ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2022
Religious leaders can motivate men to cede power and reduce intimate partner violence: Experimental evidence from Uganda.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Preventing Sexual Violence: A Behavioral Problem Without a Behaviorally Informed Solution.Psychological science in the public interest : a journal of the American Psychological Society · 2024Pooled it
- A Scoping Review of IPV Prevention Curricula and Their Implementation in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Implications for the Next Generation of Programs.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- "If you want to have sex you can, if you don't, you don't have to": a qualitative evaluation of the Unite for a Better Life couples program to prevent intimate partner violence in rural Ethiopia.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Gender equity and intimate partner violence among adolescents and young adults in Tanzania.Culture, health & sexuality · 2026Article
- Can a programme to support parents reduce both violence against women and violence against children? A pre-post pilot test in Zimbabwe.Frontiers in global women's health · 2026Article
- How culturally wise psychological interventions can help reduce poverty.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Leveraging faith-leaders to prevent violence against women and girls: A qualitative study of evangelical faith-leaders' perceptions in Woliso, Ethiopia.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Equipping community health workers in Rwanda to deliver a gender transformative parenting program to prevent violence against women and children at scale.Frontiers in reproductive health · 2025Article
- Effects of digital chatbot on gender attitudes and exposure to intimate partner violence among young women in South Africa.PLOS digital health · 2023Article
- Optimizing the Construction of Outcome Measures for Impact Evaluations of Intimate Partner Violence Prevention Interventions.Journal of interpersonal violence · 2023Article
- Pathways to reduced physical intimate partner violence among women in north-western Tanzania: Evidence from two cluster randomised trials of the MAISHA intervention.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Article
- Religious leaders can motivate men to cede power and reduce intimate partner violence: Experimental evidence from Uganda.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
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8 authors.
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Abstract
Violence committed by men against women in intimate relationships is a pervasive problem around the world. Patriarchal norms that place men as the head of household are often to blame. Previous research suggests that trusted authorities can shift perceptions of norms and create behavior change. In many settings, a compelling authority on behavior in relationships is religious leaders, who are influential sources of information about proper conduct in relationships and gatekeepers of marriage, but may also uphold traditional gender roles. One way leaders exert their influence is through premarital or couples counseling courses. In this study, we test whether, if given an opportunity to offer a more progressive religious interpretation of gender roles during these courses, religious leaders could motivate men to share power and thereby reduce violence. Building on existing faith networks of Christian religious leaders in western Uganda, we conducted a large pair-matched, randomized controlled trial among 1,680 heterosexual couples in which participants were randomized to attend a 12-session group counseling course or wait-listed. We find that the program shifted power from men to women and reduced intimate partner violence by five percentage points, comparable with more intensive secular programs. These improvements were largest among couples counseled by religious leaders who held the most progressive views at baseline and who critically engaged with the material. Our findings suggest that religious leaders can be effective agents of change for reducing violence.
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